Forensic entomologist Timothy Huntington said Sterling Koehn’s diaper hadn’t been changed in nine to 14 days. He was testifying Friday in the murder trial of Sterling's mother, Cheyanne Harris, 21, of Alta Vista. The trial was moved to Plymouth County on a change of venue.

Cheyanne Harris is showing listening to testimony in her first-degree murder trial Friday in Plymouth County District Court in Le Mars. She is standing trial for the neglect death of her 4-month-old baby, Sterling Koehn, in August 2018 while living in Alta Vista.

DCI Agent Chris Callaway interviewed Cheyanne Harris following the death of her son in August 2017 in Alta Vista. He testified Friday in her first-degree murder trial to what she told him concerning the care of her baby.

Flanked by defense attorneys and deputies, Cheyanne Harris, center, takes her seat in the Plymouth County District Court courtroom on Friday. Her first-degree murder trial was moved to Le Mars from Chickasaw County on a change of venue.

Forensic entomologist Timothy Huntington said Sterling Koehn’s diaper hadn’t been changed in nine to 14 days. He was testifying Friday in the murder trial of Sterling's mother, Cheyanne Harris, 21, of Alta Vista. The trial was moved to Plymouth County on a change of venue.

Cheyanne Harris is showing listening to testimony in her first-degree murder trial Friday in Plymouth County District Court in Le Mars. She is standing trial for the neglect death of her 4-month-old baby, Sterling Koehn, in August 2018 while living in Alta Vista.

DCI Agent Chris Callaway interviewed Cheyanne Harris following the death of her son in August 2017 in Alta Vista. He testified Friday in her first-degree murder trial to what she told him concerning the care of her baby.

Flanked by defense attorneys and deputies, Cheyanne Harris, center, takes her seat in the Plymouth County District Court courtroom on Friday. Her first-degree murder trial was moved to Le Mars from Chickasaw County on a change of venue.

LE MARS — Testimony from a forensic pathologist and a bug expert was at odds with the account Cheyanne Harris gave to investigators after her 4-month-old son was found dead in a swing seat on Aug. 30, 2017.

Harris, 21, currently on trial for first-degree murder and child endangerment causing death, told police she had changed and fed baby Sterling on Aug. 29 and placed him in the swing.

She wasn’t able to provide an exact time for the changing and feeding, but Iowa State Medical Examiner Dennis Klein and forensic entomologist Timothy Huntington told jurors the condition of Sterling’s body and the maggots growing in his diaper showed he hadn’t been fed or changed for days.

“The diaper I saw didn’t appear to have been changed on the 29th,” Klein said Friday as the first week of testimony on Harris’ trial wrapped up at the Plymouth County Courthouse in Le Mars.

Some jurors looked away, and Harris looked down and covered her eyes, as Klein showed jurors photos of the condition of Sterling’s body. Skin around the diaper area was sloughing off, and the diaper rash had crawled halfway up his back and chest.

Sterling’s eyes and the soft spot on his head had sunken from dehydration, and Klein said he found evidence of a sodium deficiency.

Klein said he ruled Sterling died of malnutrition, dehydration and diaper rash. He said any of the ailments alone could have been enough to kill him. The cause of death was denial of critical care, and the manner was homicide, Klein said.

And there were maggots in different stages of development crawling on the clothing.

Huntington said he identified the insects as common scuttle flies that were likely attracted to the feces and laid eggs, which began to hatch and grow.

Huntington said considering the temperature of the bedroom where Sterling was found, the infestation likely started nine to 14 days before the 911 call that summoned authorities Aug. 30, 2017.

Sterling would likely would have noticed a crawling sensation with the insects moving about in the diaper.

“Certainly in a sensitive area like a genital area, you’d feel it,” he said.

He said he wasn’t able to pinpoint a time of death, but he concluded that because other insects hadn’t colonized Sterling’s mouth, nose and eyes, he likely would have been dead half a day or one day at the most.

The defense said postpartum depression played a role in Sterling’s death.

Earlier Friday, jurors heard that Harris had told Agent Chris Callaway with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation that she last fed and changed Sterling on Aug. 29, 2017, around the time the child’s father, Zachary Koehn, left for his third-shift trucking job.

Harris said when she was done, she was summoned by her almost-2-year-old daughter knocking on the bedroom door.

“I put him back in the swing and gave him the bottle. And turned it on and went to see what she wanted,” Harris told Callaway. She wasn’t able to put a time to it.

Harris explained she kept the children separated so the daughter wouldn’t disturb Sterling and because Sterling got cold easily.

Harris said she fed her daughter and recalled having difficulty getting the toddler to sleep. Koehn returned home around 4 or 5 a.m. Aug. 30, 2017. They ate grilled cheese and then went to sleep, she said. She said the daughter woke her around noon, and she discovered Sterling was dead when she went to check on him.

Harris told Callaway that Koehn suspected Sudden Infant Death Syndrome was behind Sterling’s death, and Callaway asked if she was concerned she had done something wrong.

“I can’t help but feel that I (unintelligible) him differently. Or I should have checked on him more,” Harris told the agent.

She also told Callaway that Koehn rarely helped out with caring for the infant. He didn’t change diapers because it made him sick, and during feeding he was always worried he wasn’t doing it right, she said.

Although Sterling died in Chickasaw County, Harris is being tried in Plymouth County on a change of venue.

Koehn was convicted of murder and child endangerment during a trial in the fall of 2018.

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This is a still photo from a law enforcement bodycam video showing Cheyanne Harris crying and holding her daughter after her son, Sterling, was found dead in a swing seat in August 2017 in Alta Vista. The video was shown to a jury hearing Harris' first-degree murder case.

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Forensic entomologist Timothy Huntington said Sterling Koehn’s diaper hadn’t been changed in nine to 14 days. He was testifying Friday in the murder trial of Sterling's mother, Cheyanne Harris, 21, of Alta Vista. The trial was moved to Plymouth County on a change of venue.

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DCI Agent Chris Callaway interviewed Cheyanne Harris following the death of her son in August 2017 in Alta Vista. He testified Friday in her first-degree murder trial to what she told him concerning the care of her baby.

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Cheyanne Harris is showing listening to testimony in her first-degree murder trial Friday in Plymouth County District Court in Le Mars. She is standing trial for the neglect death of her 4-month-old baby, Sterling Koehn, in August 2018 while living in Alta Vista.

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Mail carrier Tina Shatek testified in the trial of Cheyanne Harris on Wednesday. Harris, 21, of Alta Vista, is charged with first-degree murder and child endangerment in the death of her infant son, Sterling Koehn, in August 2017.

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Cheyanne Harris talks with defense attorneys before trial on Wednesday. Her murder and child endangerment trial was moved to Plymouth County on a change of venue. She is accused neglecting her baby son to the point he died in August 2017 in Alta Vista.

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Cheyanne Harris, right, listens to the opening statement during her murder trial Wednesday morning. She later broke into tears as she saw pictures of her deceased son in his baby swing seat. Her trial was moved in Plymouth County in western Iowa on a change of venue. At left is her attorney, Aaron Hawbaker.

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(3) comments

It is quite interesting, and perhaps telling, that there is no mention of the condition and treatment of the older child. Apparently the older child was not neglected or mistreated? Post partum depression is a very very real condition that is well known in new mothers (mother's who have recently given birth and can be different after each birth), up to a year after the birth, if I recall. It can be very mild all the way up to extreme or very severe/dangerous. It is easy to see, with what info is given about the father, that his treatment of the mother and the child would certainly exacerbate the mother's instability as well as to have put the children in more grave danger. And where were relatives and friends of the parents? No support system for the mom or the children? And no one that cared to visit them and see and hold and care for the new baby? Where is the doctor in all this? No post birth check up for mom? No baby wellness checks etc? The baby - and mother - were failed at every turn. The father would have been most responsible for not getting help. He was the only other adult who lived there and would have known the mom needed help, and the babies too. If he was "sane" and she was not then who is really responsible?

I understand PPD, but she could have reached out to ANYONE for help. If she had no close family or friends, she could have gone to the hospital or at least called them. I am close to someone who has had PPD, and I know the nurses called her at home a few times after giving birth to see if she was ok and needed help.

I have absolutely no sympathy for this monster. None. She was too busy doing drugs to even care if she had a child. She deserves to spend her life in prison. And, I hope its very hard time. Same goes for the monster that was the father. No sympathy at all. None.

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